Karl Wallace, the artistic director who resigned from the Limerick City of Culture project, has clarified some of the circumstances surrounding his departure.

In response to a statement by the Limerick city manager, Mr Conn Murray, that Mr Wallace had behaved in a despicable manner by virtue of his failure as an employee to inform Mr Murray of his decision to resign despite having relayed his decision to the media beforehand, Mr Wallace has revealed that he resigned his position as artistic director by letter dated 30 December last. That letter was emailed to the Human Resources department of Limerick Local Authorities at 9.30am on December 30 and was acknowledged by email sent at 2.15pm the same day. That acknowledgement from the Human Resources department stated that the letter had been forwarded to Mr Murray. Mr Murray subsequently acknowledged receipt of the resignation in a letter he sent to Mr Wallace by email on January 3.

Mr Wallace pointed out that his "first and only contact with the media in relation to this matter was on January 1 -- at which stage Mr Murray was in possession of the letter of resignation for two days." Therefore, Mr Wallace states, to describe his behaviour as despicable was "a clear misrepresentation of what actually occurred."

Mr Wallace has also described our report that he was subject to a performance review in December as "factually incorrect and a misrepresentation of what happened".

Mr Wallace says that in fact he requested a performance review last September. That was undertaken in October but was not fully completed "and there has been no follow-up on it in the meantime." He says he was never informed or advised that there was to be a further performance review or that such a review was requested by the board of Limerick City of Culture."